The Oracle
The Oracle is a monster who resides on a special level called "The Oracle Level" (or Delphi). She can provide a consultation for a fee, which is supposed to be one of the main ways the player learns about the game. In practice, players read spoilers, such as this one. Level The Oracle Level is located between level 5 and 9 inclusive in the Dungeons of Doom. It is eligible to leave bones, and monster creation is biased towards neutral monsters. Immediately below the Oracle Level is the level with the entrance to Sokoban. There are five rooms to the sides of the above area, containing the stairs (in separate rooms), five random monsters, three random traps, and six random items; they are linked to each other and to the above room by corridors. The Oracle is at the center of the three by three room (called Delphi), amid the fountains. Delphi has a random empty doorway in one wall. There are two random monsters generated in the area surrounding Delphi. The marked statues are: * two forest centaurs (northwest and southeast) * two mountain centaurs (northeast and southwest) * four plains centaurs (north, west, south, and east). * The statues are considered historic, and thus yield an alignment penalty if they are broken by an archeologist. The statues also have a chance of containing a random spellbook. Monster |reference=monst.c#line2393 }} The Oracle is a human , and always starts peaceful. Attacking her in melee causes a spray of magic missiles to hit you; she has no active attacks of her own.uhitm.c#line2222If you survive these magic missiles and #chat with her, you will get the message "The oracle is in no mood for consultations." Killing her with ranged attacks will net no penalty except that of murder, but it's generally a bad idea. Consultations The Oracle offers two services. Minor consultations are true rumors, like you get from a blessed fortune cookie. A major consultation is an extended description of some aspect of the game, for example: Behold the cockatrice, whose diminutive stature belies its hidden might. The cockatrice can petrify any ordinary being it contacts--save those wise adventurers who eat a dead lizard or blob of acid when they feel themselves slowly turning to stone. Major consultations can be found in the file Oracles.txt, for players who are not inclined to pay as they go. Consultations cost money, but increase your scorerumors.c#line376 and give experience pointsrumors.c#line359 for the first of each type: If you take a major consultation, but do not have enough money to pay for it, the Oracle will take all your money and give a special oracularity which references Oracle machine. You won't get any experience for this and will "use up" your one chance to get experience at the major level. Even the minor consultation will only give you 2 points afterwards. This can be trouble if you were relying on this for a pacifist character. Lists of Consultations The oracle's consultations are stored in plain text in the source code, you can read the: List of Major Consultations which are from the netack-3.4.3\dat\oracles.txt List of Rumors which are from the netack-3.4.3\dat\rumors.tru Mythology & History The Oracle is primarily based on the Pythia, the priestess who presided over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi; the NetHack Oracle will welcome you to "Delphi" when she spots you arriving at her abode. Some behavior is also in reference to the Internet Oracle from rec.humor.oracle, which first appeared in 1989, as did the Oracle in NetHack 3.0.0. Both of these predate the Oracle in The Matrix film series, which is not referenced. The Oracle-level sound effects reference several different oracles: ; "You hear a strange wind." : The Oracle of Jupiter at Dodona ; "You hear convulsive ravings." : The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi ; "You hear snoring snakes." : The Oracle of Æsculapius at Epidaurus The two hallucination sounds both reference the Internet Oracle: ; "You hear someone say "No more woodchucks!"" : In reference to the taboo question "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" ; "You hear a loud ZOT!" : In reference to the traditional answer to this. Strategy Pacifist characters should use the Oracle for levelling up. The Oracle will not get angry if you dry up the fountains or destroy the statues. If you lack telepathy, the Oracle level can often be recognized by its slightly different assortment of monsters, e. g. naga hatchlings and baby dragons. This is because it counts as neutral for monster generation purposes, just like the Sokoban. Encyclopedia entry Source code references External Links * Wikipedia article on the Pythia * Wikipedia article on the Internet Oracle * rec.humor.oracle Oracle Oracle